Christopher Haas

Alexandria and the Mareotis Region

On the 13th of July, 494, two wealthy Alexandrians paid off part of a

debt they owed to a certain Flavius Maximus, scholasticus and advocate in

the court of praefectus Augustalis. The two debtors were themselves

wealthy and powerful men in the city. Flavius Olympiodorus was, like

Maximus, an advocate and scholasticus. The other debtor, Flavius Julianus,

was a notarius sacri palatii and held the rank of clarissimus. The two men

lived in different parts of the city: Olympiodorus dwelt near the Great

Tetrapylon in the city center, while Julianus's home was near the former

Serapeum. Their debt amounted to more than mere pocketchange: 1,455

nomismata, that is, more than twenty Roman pounds of gold. In order to pay

off 675 nomismata of the debt, Julianus surrendered to Maximus "two

orchards and their appurtenances, situated in the Strip (or Taenia) of

Taphosiris... near Lake Marea."i

In this recently-edited papyrus, we witness one aspect of the multi-

faceted relationship that grew up between the city of Alexandria and its

immediate hinterland surrounding Lake Mareotis. Our understanding of this

city/hinterland system is still in its early stages, due in large part to scholarly

preoccupation with the regions up the Nile. However, archaeological field

surveys and more focused excavation over the past two decades in Mareotis

have provided tantalizing pieces of information that allow for a preliminary

reconstruction of this system.ii

2

Far and away, the overwhelming volume of agricultural goods shipped

to Alexandria came from middle and upper Egypt, facilitated by the

inexpensive and efficient transport provided by the Nile. However, most of

these goods (principally wheat and barley) were trans-shipped in Alexandria,

and sent in vast quantities to Rome, Constantinople, and the imperial armies.

The main supplier of agricultural produce to Alexandria itself was its

immediate hinterland within a radius of some 30 to 40 miles.iii This hinterland

may be divided, for the sake of convenience, into two distinct geographical

areas: Mareotis, comprising the lands to the south and west of the lake, and

the so-called "territory (chôra/regio) of the Alexandrians" which extended from

the lake's eastern shore as far as the Nile. This latter district became a

separate nome sometime in the early Roman period with its metropolis at

Hermopolis Parva. Throughout antiquity, the region contained extensive

landholdings of Alexandrians, and helped to furnish the city's needs in meats

and vegetables.iv

Yet, of the two hinterland regions subordinate to Alexandria, Mareotis

was clearly the more important, not only because of its abundant output of

agricultural goods, but also owing to its closer political and economic ties to

the city. Mareotis itself was made up of two zones which need to be

distinguished very carefully when the term is encountered in the ancient

sources.v The first of these refers to the main eastern body of the lake itself,

which covered approximately three times its current area during antiquity.vi A

good measure of its size can be found in Palladius, the mid-fifth century

hagiographer, who informs us that it took him a full day and a half to cross

from Alexandria to the monastic settlement of Nitria at the lake's

southernmost shore.vii During the late Roman period, its waters teemed with

3

fish and waterfowl, and it was noted for its many papyrus marshes.viii The

inhabitants of Lake Mareotis carried on an existence not too much different

from that of today's lake dwellers: living in reed huts either along the shoreline

or on islands, and maneuvering among the maze of reeds in shallow-draft

boats.ix The lake was fed by canals which linked up with the Canopic branch

of the Nile at Schedia and Charaeu. As a consequence, Lake Mareotis

delimited the southern boundaries of Alexandria. With the Mediterranean and

the lake on either side, the city's unique location led the anonymous fourth

century author of the Expositio totius mundi to marvel that Alexandria's

inhabitants could partake of "something no other province has: river fish, lake

fish, and salt-water fish."x

The fifth century historian, Socrates, tells us that the name Mareotis also

referred to "a district of Alexandria, in which are contained very many villages,

and an abundant population."xi This semi-rural region south and west of the

lake possessed ten or more villages and a larger urban center named Marea,

dating back to Pharonic times, around which there was a countryside dotted

with prosperous villas. Until Justinian detached Mareotis from Aegyptus Prima,

and transferred it to the jurisdiction of the Libyan diocese in 538, the region

was clearly subordinate to Alexandrian authorities.xii During the fourth

century, it had a separate tax assessor sent out by the prefect in Alexandria.

Though the district could boast numerous churches, the fifteen priests and

fifteen deacons of Mareotis remained under the direct control of the

Alexandrian patriarch. The region was never served by its own bishop or even

by a chôrepiscopos sent out from Alexandria; the patriarch himself inspected

these churches. This tight control enhanced the severity of the charges

leveled at Athanasius at the Council of Tyre in 335, that he had ordered the

4

altar of a dissenting priest overthrown and had approved the breaking of a

holy chalice at a church in Mareotis.xiii

The main geographical feature that endows this region with its distinct

character is the long westward arm of Lake Mareotis, known today as the

Mallahet Maryût, which extends some 60 km west from the main basin. The

lake is separated from the Mediterranean by a narrow limestone ridge,

between 10 and 30 meters in height which begins near Canopus and runs

along the coastline through Alexandria and well past the end of the lake. The

presence of the ridge led Alexander to situate his city on this first solid ground

west of the marshy Delta. This narrow strip or taenia of land, was famed in

antiquity for its papyrus and for a flavorful wine much praised by the ancients.

Athenaeus tells us, "The wines there are somewhat pale, disclosing an oily

quality in them which is dissolved by the gradual mixture of water, like the

honey of Attica when water is added. This Taeniotic wine, beside being

pleasant, has also an aromatic quality, and is mildly astringent."xiv South of

the lake, the ground gradually rises by some 200 meters to the top of yet

another ridge, parallel to the first, which is situated approximately 2 km south

of the lake.

Although this entire district was well off the main corridor of goods and

services moving between Alexandria and the rest of Egypt, archaeological

remains testify to the agricultural wealth of Mareotis. Well-appointed villas

and country houses have been excavated at Huwarriyah, Burg al-Arab, and

Taposiris Magna.xv The prosperity of the region was based largely on

viticulture, as evidenced by more than two dozen wineries that have been

surveyed recently -- four alone in the vicinity of Huwarriyah.xvi Mareotic wine,

though not on a par with that of Taenia, was one of the Mediterranean's most

5

sought after varieties. Strabo, Virgil, and Horace all sing the praises of

Mareotic wine, though the seventh century patriarch, John the Almsgiver,

claimed that "its taste is nothing to boast of and its price is low" -- doubtless

because of its local production.xvii Our late second century connoisseur,

Athenaeus, comments: "The vine is abundant in this region, and its grapes are

very good to eat. The wine made from them is excellent; it is white and

pleasant, fragrant, easily assimilated, thin, and does not go to the head."xviii

Wine production was supplemented by grains and olive oil, attested by

several mills and presses. Faunal remains at Philoxenite indicate that pigs

were common, and to a lesser degree, sheep and goats. Skeletal remains of

duck and gazelle suggest that hunting supplemented the local diet. Fish,

however, are by far the most abundant in the archaeological record,

reminding us of the lake's important role as a source of food, as well as of

fresh water and transport.xix

One of the most remarkable aspects of recent archaeological work

around the Mallahet Maryût is the presence of numerous pottery factories.

Rubbish dumps of ill-formed or broken amphoras, as well as several actual

kilns, bring the current total of these pottery workshops to near thirty, many of

which are arranged in a chain along the southern shore of the lake.xx The

easternmost of these kilns, located near Amriyah, is a medium sized double-

chambered pit kiln which could fire nearly one hundred pots at a time.xxi In

1982-83, just north of Burg al-Arab, archaeologists uncovered a huge pit kiln

from the early Roman period. This kiln has a diameter of 12 meters and is 2

meters deep with large access vents for depositing fuel. Holes in the floor of

the kiln, arranged in the form of five concentric circles, could accomodate well

over one hundred amphoras, making the kiln the largest in Egypt and one of

6

the largest in the Mediterranean.xxii

Even more striking are the mounds of pottery sherds along the lake's

southern shore. One the largest, near Amriyah, is nearly 30 by 50 meters, and

rises to a height of 20 meters. Thousands of broken pots alternate in layers

with ashes from a nearby kiln. A similar tale could be told of refuse mounds

on the lakeward slope near Huwarriyah and Bahig. Most of these pottery

mounds date back as early the late Ptolemaic period. Late antique amphoras

seem to predominate, and the sequence generally ends in the seventh

century. Thus far, there is no evidence of Coptic glazed pottery of the 8th to

10th centuries in the lakeside mounds associated with the pottery workshops.

The close connection between these pottery workshops and viticulture in the

Mareotic economy may be observed at several sites, notably at Burg el-Arab,

where a large winery built of carefully dressed limestone and dated to the

4th/5th centuries was discovered only 150 m. to the west of the enormous pit

kiln described above.xxiii The contents of the amphoras produced in these

workshops were clearly for export since Mariotic pottery has been found in

abundance in Roman shipwrecks in the western Mediterranean and at sites

well up the Rhone valley.xxiv

The prosperity generated by this far-flung trade in wine is manifested by

the close proximity of wineries to spacious villas throughout the region. At

Abu Mina, a two-storied sixth century villa was connected by a courtyard to a

winery that is nearly as large as the villa itself. Even more sumptuous is the

villa / winery complex at Huwarriyah. Sometime in the early fifth century, a

large double-peristyle villa was constructed atop the limestone ridge south of

the lake. Not more than 200 meters to the northeast, an extensive winery of

the same date has been excavated. The arrangement and relationship of the

7

vats as well as the four coats of red plaster that protected the precious fluid

they contained are common to wine factories in the region. In the large upper

basin the grapes were initially crushed, and the sloping floor directed the juice

towards a marble lion's head spout. The smaller upper basin containing the

press probably was used to extract the last bits of juice from the previously

crushed grapes. The juice then flowed into the large basin, after it had been

strained through a cloth suspended beneath the spouts. The main collection

basin, nearly two and a half meters deep, is one of the biggest in the eastern

Mediterranean. After some initial fermentation, the wine was then poured into

amphoras produced in one of the nearby workshops.xxv It was taken down to

the lake and loaded at one of the many ancient jetties which can still be seen

along the western coasts.xxvi

From the scale of the villas and countryhouses in the region, it appears

that the economy of Mareotis was in the hands of landowners of good-sized

farms and vineyards. As we have seen, some of these landowners, like Flavius

Julianus, were Alexandrians. To protect this wealthy district, Alexandria's

rulers, from the Ptolemies down to Byzantine emperors, developed the

important garrison town of Taposiris Magna. Ptolemy II constructed a large

temple to Osiris here, and the remains of this precinct are some of the most

impressive north of Gizah. Visitors to the site are also drawn by the 19 meters

high copy of the Alexandrian Pharos, which functioned here, not as a beacon

to sailors, but as a magnificent funerary monument. The tower stands atop a

typical late Ptolemaic chamber tomb and is in the midst of Taposiris Magna's

necropolis. Of greater importance for the entire region, were the defensive

works which guarded the only landward approach to Alexandria from the west.

More than a century ago, Mahmoud el-Falaki traced the course of a wall which

8

cuts across the entire Taenia ridge, from the Mediterranean to the lake.

Dubbed the "barbarian's wall," it makes use of an adjacent wadi running down

to the lake to create a formidable combined barrier of ditch and wall. It has

one gate which guards the ancient road from Alexandria to Cyrenaica, and

can only be approached by entering a narrow lane formed by parallel walls on

either side of the road.xxvii

Defensive works on the lake are no less impressive. A dike of stone

quarried from the Taenia ridge extends across the lake from the south until,

just off shore, it meets a perpendicular harbor mole, thereby creating a long

narrow channel. The harbor mole is joined to the shore by a bridge, under

which all lake traffic would have to pass. Between these installations on both

land and water, the Ptolemies and their successors could effectively regulate

all movement on the routes west of Alexandria.

The Romans recognized the defensive capabilities of this strategic site.

Its value continued throughout the late antique period, as evidenced by a

Roman camp which was built inside the walls of the temple precinct. This

conversion to a military camp occurred sometime in the late fourth or early

fifth century, after the cessation of pagan cult. Well-ordered barracks were

built along three sides the precinct, newly-installed flights of stairs led to the

top of the walls, and a single-apsidal church was built to serve the needs of

the soldiers and surrounding population.

Obviously, if the main function of Taposiris Magna was to protect

Alexandria from the west, there were even better sites closer to the city where

defensive works could have been built. Its establishment here filled the

additional role of guarding the most intensely cultivated and inhabited regions

along the Mallahet Maryût. Nearly all of the excavated villas, wineries, and

9

pottery workshops are situated between Taposiris Magna and the main basin

of the lake.

It comes as no surprise that Alexandria's Mareotic hinterland was drawn

into contests for the military control of the city. Some of the bitterest fighting

that took place late in 609, during the rebellion of Heraclius against Phocas,

occurred in the Mareotic regions near Alexandria. Once Heraclius's lieutenant,

Nicetas, overwhelmed the defenses of Mareotis and gained access to the

canal system just west of Alexandria, it was just a matter of time until Phocas'

appointed prefect was defeated and his impaled head was displayed over

Alexandria's Gate of the Moon. The capture of Alexandria was a major

stepping stone in Heraclius's eventual victory over Phocas.xxviii

The rise of Christianity influenced the relationship between Alexandria

and the Mareotis region in several different ways, and, in part, created a

strong counter-current of goods and people travelling from Alexandria to the

hinterland. During the late fourth century the shrine of St. Menas, a Tetrarchic

military martyr, grew enormously in popularity due to his reputation as

miracle-worker. The shrine was situated in a desert region, even in antiquity,

and was 17 kilometers from Lake Mareotis. Despite the distance, a veritable

city -- called by contemporaries, Martyroupolis -- sprung up in the desert

during the fifth and sixth centuries. Successive Alexandrian patriarchs

endowed the shrine with a lavish basilica, a renovated martyr-crypt and

martyr church, a baptistery; markets, hostels and baths for pilgrims, and

barracks for a protecting garrison. The crowds who flocked here took home

with them flasks of holy water which depicted the saint between two camels.

The wide distribution of these flasks around the Mediterranean testifies to St.

Menas's high regard during the early Byzantine period.xxix

10

The Coptic Encomium of Apa Mena relates that the emperor

Anastasius's praetorian prefect:

saw the hardships suffered by the many multitudes coming to the

shrine. For when they left the lake and entered upon the desert

there, they found no place of lodgement or water till they reached

the holy shrine. And the prefect built hospices by the lake and

rest-houses for the multitudes to stay at. And he had the market-

place established there in order that the multitudes might find and

buy all their needs. He had spacious depositories constructed

where the multitudes could leave their clothes and baggage and

everything which they brought to the shrine. When he had

completed everything he called it Philoxenite after himself. He

also set up porticoes at different places where the people might

rest. And he established watering places along the roads, leaving

at them waterjars, from the hospices as far as the church... And

this continued till the time of Heraclius when the Saracens took

the land.xxx

The port facility built for this pilgrim traffic remains today as one of the

most impressive archaeological sites in the entire Mareotis region. Though it

has sometimes been identified as the Pharonic administrative center of Marea,

its architectural remains cannot be dated before the fifth century A.D., and it

lacks any terra sigillata pottery, common at Egyptian sites prior to the late

fourth century. It is built almost entirely of limestone quarried from the Taenia

ridge just across the lake. Philoxenite's main purpose was neither defense nor

trade, since it lacks any fortifications or warehouses. Its three well-preserved

quays vary in length from 64 to 146 meters in length. This variation would

11

enable the port to be used regardless of the seasonal level of the lake's water.

Over the past two decades, archaeologists have uncovered a double-bath

complex, a slipway which served as a dry-dock, and a row of five shops which

fronted on a covered portico. On the eastern promontory forming the harbor

area, there is a public latrine, an oil press, and a large three-aisled transept

basilica, of which only one apse has been fully excavated. A causeway over

half a kilometer in length connects the mainland with a small island which

probably functioned as a fort and also as a lighthouse or customs post. The

port lacks a substantial residential section, and the nearby encroaching

necropolis suggests that the local population was rather small, only enough to

serve the needs of pilgrim traffic.xxxi

The hagiographic sources connected with the cult of St. Menas vividly

depict life in this bustling transit port for pilgrims. One tale speaks of a slave

boy miraculously saved from drowning who searches for his master among

the many ships ranged along the docks of Philoxenite. Frequently, the

miracles of St. Menas concern his heavenly protection of naive pilgrims from

the unscrupulous and predatory inhabitants of Philoxenite. In one typical

story, a rich pilgrim is murdered and dismembered by a dockside storekeeper,

only to be restored to life again by the saint. In another, an Alexandrian

woman is delivered from the lecherous designs of a innkeeper by the

miraculous appearance of the mounted military saint. In the full regalia of a

spatharius, St. Menas breaks down the doors of the hostelry and afflicts the

wicked innkeeper with a paralysis which can only be cured by oil from the

saint's shrine.xxxii

The effect that this flow of fervent pilgrims had on the Mareotic

countryside can be seen just over two kilometers south of the lake, at the villa

12

near Huwarriyah. This double-peristyle villa was the luxurious country

residence associated with the elaborate winery discussed above. It is one of

the very few peristyle villas known from Egypt and it covered an area of more

than 1,500 square meters. Sometime in the mid to late sixth century, the villa

received an extensive renovation. Additional latrines were installed -- far

more than would be needed in a typical villa. More telling is the renovation of

the northern peristyle in which a church was built, incorporating two rooms

from the eastern wing of the building. To the north of the church, a baptistery

was added, in form quite similar to the 6th century baptistery at Abu Mina.

Since this villa was located on a direct line between Philoxenite and Abu Mina,

and stood just at the crest of the limestone ridge which sloped up from the

lake, it is very likely that the Huwarriyah villa was transformed, in its last

phase, into a pilgrim xenodochion or hospitium.xxxiii

Christianity also influenced the landscape in Mareotis, once the

monastic ideal caught hold of the imaginations of town dwellers. By the fifth

century, Alexandria was ringed by notable monastic communities, among

them Metanoia at Canopus and Nitria south of the lake, so that Palladius could

speak of "the monasteries in the neighborhood of Alexandria with their some

two thousand most noble and zealous inhabitants."xxxiv Likewise, to the west

of Alexandria, along the narrow limestone ridge separating the Mediterranean

from Lake Mareotis, a number of monasteries sprang up in the late fourth and

early fifth centuries. These monasteries, which flourished just prior to the

Sassanian and Arab conquests, took their names from the nearest milestone

marking the distance from the city -- thus, Pempton (5th), Enaton (9th), and

Oktokaidekaton (18th).xxxv In addition, the sources speak of a monastery

within the settlement at Taposiris Magna.xxxvi While this intermural monastery

13

has not yet been found, some 100 meters west of Taposiris Magna, a large

church complex was discovered. It included a spacious basilica church with

an attached chapel. Broad courts on either side of the churches open onto

rows of rooms. The precise function of the complex has not been determined,

but it may have one of the Taenia monasteries.xxxvii

Among the monasteries ranged along the Taenia ridge, undoubtedly the

most important was Enaton, which was the home of several famous abbots

and miracle-workers during late antiquity.xxxviii The spiritual writer, John

Climacus, collected much of the material for his Ladder of Divine Ascent

during a lengthy sojourn at Enaton.xxxix The monastery became large enough

that it eventually comprised a handful of churches and monastic sub-

communities all under the hegemony of the larger community. It became a

center of Monophysite opposition to Chalcedonian authority within Alexandria,

and for a time, was the seat of the Coptic patriarchate.xl Nearly a century ago,

the remains of a small monastic settlement at Dikayla were identified as

Enaton, however it seems to be both too small and too close to Alexandria to

merit this identification. It is more likely to be Pempton, that is, if it is even

one of monasteries known to us from the sources.xli

Given this picture of late antique prosperity; with wine, oil, grain, and

other produce being shipped to Alexandria, and with pilgrims, ascetics, and

officials traveling to the Mareotis: Why did this region decline so rapidly at the

end of Antiquity? The pottery record at Philoxenite shows various North

African and Cypriot wares, along with local pottery, but the sequence abruptly

ceases in the 7th century. The Huwarriyah villa likewise seems to have been

abandoned in the 7th century. It is only in scattered settlements south of the

villa that we find Coptic glazed pottery of the 8th to 10th centuries. A similar

14

tale could be told of sites from Taposiris Magna to Amriyah: steep decline in

habitation during the 7th century, and more gradual abandonment until the

end of the 10th century. Thus far, there has been no Mamluk pottery of the

11th century found at any of these sites.xlii

The reasons for this decline go far beyond simply pointing a finger at

`Amr ibn al-`As and his Arab army. Just as the Syrian cities of the limestone

massif east of Antioch and the agricultural towns of Egypt's Fayyûm

experienced decline largely due to ecological factors, so too the prosperity of

the Mareotis region began to deteriorate when its delicate environmental

structure was disrupted.xliii The Arab conquest is just one piece of a much

larger puzzle.

The stability of this city/hinterland system was predicated upon the

water-borne transport afforded by Lake Mareotis and the Mallahet Maryût.

This "dendritic" system (in the parlance of regional systems analysis) grew out

of a two-way flow of goods, services, taxes, and people between Alexandria

and its principal hinterland of Mareotis.xliv Fed by canals from the Canopic

branch of the Nile, Lake Mareotis was the lifeblood of the entire region. These

canals suffered from the neglect of Byzantine authorities and from deliberate

military violence during Heraclius' war against Phocas, during the devastating

Sassanian invasion of 619, and also at the time of Alexandria's capture by

`Amr ibn al-`As. The lake was dealt a final death blow in the 9th and 10th

centuries when the Canopic branch of Nile dried up. It is no wonder that

Alexandria's new city walls, built by Ibn Tulun in the 9th century, were far

removed from the former shores of Lake Mareotis. Habitation continued on

the highlands south of the lake, but was dependent upon wells and cisterns.

By that time, both ends of this great city/hinterland system had turned away

15

from the other and had learned to rely instead on their own resources. Flavius

Julianus, the elite Alexandrian owner of the Mareotic orchards, was fortunate

to have paid off his debt when he did.

16

. P.Oxy. 63.4394, ed. J. R. Rea.

. A foundational discussion of the region's archaeology is M. Rodziewicz, "Alexandria and the District

of Mareotis," Graeco-Arabica 2 (1983): 199-216. A wide range of specialized studies resulting from recent

surveys may be found in J.-Y. Empereur, ed., Commerce et Artisanat dans l'Alexandrie Hellénistique et

Romaine: Actes du Colloque d'Athènes, 12-12 decembre 1988 BCH Supplément 33 (Athens, 1998);

summarized, in part, in J.-Y. Empereur, Alexandrie redécouverte (Paris, 1998); Engl. ed., Alexandria

Rediscovered, trans., M. Maehler, (New York, 1998), pp. 213-239.

. The abundance of this district was such that many Egyptians from upriver sought sustenance here

during a particularly severe famine in the mid-seventh century; History of the Patriarchs 1. 14 (ed., Evetts),

p. 501, <237>.

. P.Oxy. 7.1045, 10.1274, 12.1462; John of Nikiu Chron. (ed., R. H. Charles), 94. 18. See also A.

Calderini, Dizionario dei nomi geografici e topografici dell'Egitto greco-romano (Milan, 1935) 1: 208-209.

. For surveys of the ancient literature, see Kees, RE, Bd. 14. 2, s.v. "Marea" cols. 1676-1678; A. de

Cosson, Mareotis (London, 1935); and Calderini, Dizionario 3: 233-234.

. Strabo 17. 1. 14; also de Cosson, pp. 70-82.

. Hist. Laus. 7. 1.

viii . Expositio totius mundi et gentium (ed., J. Rougé) 35. 3-5, 36. 1-7; P.Tebt. 3.867 (3rd century B.C.);

Pliny HN 13. 76; Sophron. H. v. Jo. Eleem. 8; Hist. Monach. 27. 10.

. Strabo tells us that the lake "contains eight islands, and all the shores around it are well inhabited,"

17. 1. 14.

. Expositio 36. 9-15, 35. 3-5. M. Rodziewicz, Les Habitations Romaines Tardives d'Alexandrie à la

lumière des fouilles polonaises à Kôm el-Dikka, Alexandrie III (Warsaw, 1984) p. 219), describes graffiti of

lake- and sea-going craft as the most numerous of all the genre scenes found at the late antique site of Kôm

el-Dikka, in the center of Alexandria.

. Soc. HE 1. 27 cols. 153c-156a. Athanasius refers to it as the chôra of Alexandria, (Apol. contra Ar

85 col. 400b-c).

. During the period just prior to the Arab conquest, Mareotis was counted as a Byzantine province,

(John of Nikiu 107. 4, 12; Justinian Edict 13. 1, 9, 17-22).

xiii . Athan. Apol. c. Ar. 17, 46, 63-4, 74, 85; Epiph. Haer. 68. 7. 5- 8. 5.

xiv . Deipnosophistae 1. 33.

. F. el-Fakharani, "Recent Excavations at Marea in Egypt," in G. Grimm, H. Heinen, and E. Winter,

eds., Das römisch-byzantinische Ägypten: Akten des internationalen Symposions 26.-30. September 1978 in

Trier, Aegyptiaca Treverensia: Trierer Studien zum Griechisch-Römischen Ägypten, Band 2, (Mainz, 1983):

175-186, at 184-6; M. Rodziewicz, "Remarks on the Peristyle House in Alexandria and Mareotis," Papers of

the Twelfth International Congress for Classical Archaeology in Athens (Athens, 1983); idem, "Remarks on

the Domestic and Monastic Architecture in Alexandria and Surroundings" Archaeology of the Nile Delta

(Amsterdam, 1988): 267-277; idem, "Taenia and Mareotis: Archaeological Research West of Alexandria,"

Annual of the Egyptian Society of Greek and Roman Studies 1 (1990): 62-78.

xvi . M. Rodziewicz, "Classification of Wineries from Mareotis," in J.-Y. Empereur, ed., Commerce et

Artisanat dans l'Alexandrie. 27-36.

xvii . Strabo 17. 1. 15; Virgil Georg. 2. 91; Horace Odes 1. 37; Jo. Moschus Prat. Spir. 162; Severus ibn al-

Muqaffa' History of the Patriarchs (ed. and trans. B. Evetts), 4 <pp. 56-57>; Sophr. H. v. Jo. Eleem. 10.

xviii . Deipnosophistae 1. 33.

xix . K. Petruso and C. Gabel, "Marea: A Byzantine Port on Egypt's Northwestern Frontier," Archaeology

36.5 (1983): 62-63, 76-77 (at p. 77).

. The pottery workshops are catalogued in J.-Y. Empereur and M. Picon, "Les ateliers d'amphores du

Lac Mariout," in J.-Y. Empereur, ed., Commerce et Artisanat dans l'Alexandrie, pp. 75-91.

xxi . A. Abd el-Fattah, "Recent Discoveries in Alexandria and the Chora," in in J.-Y. Empereur, ed.,

Commerce et Artisanat dans l'Alexandrie, pp. 43-45. Catalogue of pottery workshops, number 1, in

Empereur/Picon, "Les ateliers d'amphores du Lac Mariout," p. 85.

xxii . F. el-Ashhawi, "Pottery Kiln and Wine Factory at Burg el-Arab," in J.-Y. Empereur, ed., Commerce et

Artisanat dans l'Alexandrie, pp. 55-64; Rodziewicz, "Taenia and Mareotis," 62-78; J.-Y. Empereur, "La

production viticole dans l'Égypte ptolémaïque et romaine," in M.-C. Amouretti and J.-P. Brun, eds.,

production du vin et de l'huile en Méditerranée, Bulletin de Correspondance Hellenique: Supplement XXVI

(Paris, 1993): 39-47; idem, Alexandria Rediscovered, pp. 217-218. Burg el-Arab pottery workshop:

Catalogue of pottery workshops, number 27, in Empereur/Picon, "Les ateliers d'amphores du Lac Mariout,"

p. 88.

xxiii . F. el-Ashhawi, "Pottery Kiln and Wine Factory at Burg el-Arab"; M. Rodziewicz, "Classification of

Wineries from Mareotis," pp. 27-36.

xxiv . Empereur, Alexandria Rediscovered, pp. 218-219; Petruso and Gabel, "Marea: A Byzantine Port," 62-

63, 76-77.

xxv . El-Fakharani, "Recent Excavations at Marea," pp. 183-184; M. Rodziewicz, "Classification of Wineries

from Mareotis," pp. 35-36.

xxvi . M. Rodziewicz, "From Alexandria to the West by Land and by Waterways," in J.-Y. Empereur, ed.,

Commerce et Artisanat dans l'Alexandrie, pp. 93-103.

xxvii . For Taposiris Magna, its tower, and its defensive structures, see de Cosson, Mareotis, pp. 109-115;

idem, "Note on the Taenia Ridge" Bulletin de la Société Archéologique d'Alexandrie 32 (1938): 162-175; J.

Drescher, "Topographical notes for Alexandria and District" BSAA 38 (1949): 15-16; A. Adriani, "Travaux des

fouilles et de restaurations dans la région d'Abousir (Maréotis)" Annales du Musée Gréco-Romain 3 (1940-

1950): 129-139; Rodziewicz, "Taenia and Mareotis," pp. 72-74; idem, "From Alexandria to the West by Land

and by Waterways," pp. 102-103; Empereur, Alexandria Rediscovered, pp. 222-225.

xxviii . John of Nikiu Chron. 103-109. See also Z. Borkowski, Inscriptions des Factions à Alexandrie

Alexandrie II, Centre d'Archéologie Méditerranéenne de l'Académie Polonaise des Sciences (Warsaw, 1981),

and the review of same by R. Bagnall and Alan Cameron, BASP 20 (1983): 75-84. For a readable

reconstruction of these events, see A. J. Butler, The Arab Conquest of Egypt and the Last Thirty Years of the

Roman Dominion, 2nd ed. by P. M. Fraser (Oxford, 1978), pp. 1-41.

xxix . P. Grossmann, Abu Mina: A Guide to the Ancient Pilgrimage Center (Cairo, 1986): idem, "Abû Mînâ,"

in CoptEncy 1: 24-29; Z. Kiss, Les Ampoules de Saint Ménas découvertes à Kôm el-Dikka (1961-1981)

Alexandrie V (Warsaw, 1989); idem, "Ampulla," in CoptEncy 1: 116-118.

xxx . Encom. Apa Mena in J. Drescher, ed. and trans., Apa Mena: A Selection of Coptic Texts Relating to

St. Menas (Cairo, 1946), pp. 147-148.

xxxi . El-Fakharani, "Recent Excavations at Marea," pp. 178-182; M. Sadek, "The Ancient Port of Marea,"

Cahiers des Études Anciennes (Quebec) 8 (1978): 67-77; idem, "The Baths at the Ancient Harbour of

Marea," Sesto Congresso internazionale di Egittologia vol. 1 (Turin, 1992): 549-553; Rodziewicz, "Taenia and

Mareotis," pp. 73-74; idem, "Alexandria and the District of Mareotis," pp. 202-204; idem, "From Alexandria

to the West by Land and by Waterways," pp. 95-97, 101-102; K. Petruso and C. Gabel, "Marea: A Byzantine

Port."

xxxii . The Miracles of Apa Mena 2, 3, 16 (in J. Drescher, Apa Mena), pp. 111-112, 114-116, 119-120.

xxxiii . M. Rodziewicz, "Remarks on the Domestic and Monastic Architecture in Alexandria and

Surroundings" Archaeology of the Nile Delta (Amsterdam, 1988), pp. 267-277; idem, "Remarks on the

Peristyle House in Alexandria and Mareotis," Papers of the Twelfth International Congress for Classical

Archaeology in Athens (Athens, 1983); idem, "Opus sectile mosaics from Alexandria and Mareotis," in

Tesserae: Festscrift für J. Engemann, JAC Ergänzungsband 18 (1991): 204-214; el-Fakharani, "Recent

Excavations at Marea," pp. 184-186,

xxxiv . Hist. Laus. 7. 1.

xxxv . The most thorough examination of these monasteries during the period of their greatest influence

remains P. van Cauwenberg, Études sur les moines d'Égypte depuis le Councile de Chalcédoine jusqu'à

l'invasion arabe (Louvain, 1914), pp. 63-81. Valuable recent assessments may be found in J. Gascou,

"Oktokaidekaton," in CoptEncy 6: 1826-1827; idem, "Pempton," in CoptEncy 6: 1931.

xxxvi . Severus ibn al-Muquaffa' Hist. Patr. in PO vol. 5, p. 26 <280>. J. B. Ward-Perkins identified the

Roman garrison structures within the enclosure walls as the monastery at Taposiris Magna, "The Monastery

of Taposiris Magna," BSAA 36 (1945): 48-53. More recently, M. Rodziewicz has shown that this identification

is mistaken, by comparing the purported monastery's architecture with excavations of similar structures in

both Alexandria and in the Mareotis region -- structures which are undoubtedly domestic in nature: "Taenia

and Mareotis", pp. 62-63; idem, "Remarks on the Domestic and Monastic Architecture."

xxxvii . P. Grossmann, "Die Kirche extra muros von Taposiris Magna," Mitteilungen des Deutschen

Archäologischen Instituts Kairo 38 (1982): 152-154.

xxxviii . Zachariah Scholasticus v. Sev., ed. M.-A. Kugener Patrologia Orientalis 2, pp. 14-35); John Moschus

Prat. Spir. 145, 146, 171, 178.

xxxix . Scala Paradisi 4. 20-39.

. Zach. Mityl. HE 3. 2, 6. 1-2; Arabic-Jacobite Synaxarium `Amshîr 2 (ed. and trans., R. Basset,

Patrologia Orientalis 11 <732> p. 766; Severus ibn al-Muqaffa' History of the Patriarchs (ed. and trans. B.

Evetts), p. 447 <183>. See also, C. Haas, Alexandria in Late Antiquity (Baltimore, 1997), pp. 324-330.

. For a thorough discussion, see J. Gascou, "Enaton," in CoptEncy 3:954-958.

xlii . Rodziewicz, "Alexandria and Mareotis," pp. 201-205; idem, "Taenia and Mareotis,' pp. 69-70. See

also C. Décobert and M. Martin, "La Maréotique médiévale, notes d'histoire religieuse," in C. Décobert and J.-

Y. Empereur, eds., Études alexandrines 4, Supplement to BIFAO (forthcoming).

xliii . G. Tate, Les campagnes de la Syrie du nord (Paris, 1992); C. Foss, "The Near Eastern countryside in

late antiquity: a review article," The Roman and Byzantine Near East, Journal of Roman Archaeology Suppl.

14 (1995), pp. 213-234; P. van Minnen, "Deserted Villages: Two Late Antique Town Sites in Egypt" BSAP 32

(1995): 41-56.

xliv . C. A. Smith, ed., Regional Analysis (New York, 1976); N. Oppenheim, Applied Models in Urban and

Regional Analysis (Englewood Cliffs, NJ., 1980).